We are extremely grateful for the support of the People’s Postcode Lottery through the Postcode Trust for awarding Deafblind Scotland £20,000 to continue supporting our Connect 2 Support welfare rights home visiting programme.

Deafblind Scotland’s Connect 2 Support home visiting programme aims to make social welfare and welfare rights more accessible for deafblind adults and has helped more than 500 people since the programme began.

Often, severely sensory impaired individuals rely totally on welfare benefits and incur additional expenditure due to the nature of their disability e.g. the cost of Guide/communicators etc. Welfare reform seems relentless and often difficult to negotiate. Welfare benefits are complex and the processes remain time-consuming, particularly for deafblind people. CABx are overwhelmed, their open-door policy in many cases no longer exists and initial contact is via a call centre. Their engagement process relies heavily on the completion of forms. For many deafblind people, this operating model is too difficult or even impossible to engage with. When deafblind people are unable to access information, this exacerbates their feelings of social isolation and loss of independence.

Deafblind Scotland (DbS) Connect 2 Support (C2S) home visiting programme aims to make social welfare and welfare rights more accessible for deafblind adults. The programme maximises the economic environment and rights of individuals so they can have a better quality of life and alleviates poverty and distress. Since 2015, the highly successful C2S programme:-

• Has realised positive outcomes for over 500 people. This includes £1,145,000 in reoccurring additional financial benefits for over 350 sensory impaired individuals with financial gains with an average of £3045 per person (recurring). Some gains cannot be quantified in monetary terms such as blue badges, assisted gardening services, rehousing, aids and adaptations, SMART technology
• Achieved 100% success rate with sensory impaired individuals moving from Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payment.
• Achieved 100% success rate with assistance in claiming Attendance Allowance, where the individual’s sensory impairment had not developed until the later years of the person’s life.
• The C2S programme has alleviated real day-to- day financial concerns for many deafblind/ visually impaired people.

If you would like to know more about the Welfare rights programme then you can call Helen or Riley on 0141 777 6111.